Ramblin' (wo)Man by ALIX

By: Alix Marcus

When I signed up to run with Team Challenge, I was at a much more stable place in my life. I was in the groove of being back in Boston for a couple months with a full schedule of teaching and dancing, along with doing the individual training, group runs, meetings, kick-offs, and all that other fun stuff that goes along with signing up to complete a ½ marathon . Did I mention the marathon is in Vegas? How sick is that? Therein lies the real reason (Dad, you were a close secon...

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Fundraising from Within

In the past few weeks we have made long term plans for this year's fundraising efforts. Since we are planning on doing the Las Vegas race in December 4th we need to get some fundraising out of the way but are not starting our serious effort until late-December-- like last year.

Four of us- myself, Alix Marcus, Brian Teague, and Duncan Payne will be looking to compete in Vegas so that will cost $14,800. We already have a good amount out of the way from huge early donations. One idea whi...

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Member Completes Half-Ironman

I'd like to start this week's blog by recognized a new committee member, Duncan Payne. Duncan has been training very hard over the past few months for a half-ironman. This Sunday, he completed the 70.3 mile event (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) in New Hampshire in 6 hours, 17 minutes. It was great to see him cross the line. He also raised over $5,000 for the Pat Tillman Foundation and has tons of determination. He has inspired me to do an ironman sooner than I expected....

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The Next Step

Season one is officially over but we are already planning out next year. This week started out on Monday night with a meeting in Lexington regarding the Rock n' Roll Half marathon in Las Vegas in December. It was nice to see the Team Challenge people again and I saw one of my friends who I met in Australia, Tim Groves, and his sister are also now officially a part of Team Challenge. So the meeting went well but we are not positive who will be doing Vegas yet.

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Season One: Complete (Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon Weekend)

This past weekend was the Napa-to-Sonoma half marathon which was the final event of the season for Team Challenge. And once again, the weekend exceeded expectations. My parents also got to experience the weekend as they didn't get to go to Virginia, so I'm glad they enjoyed themselves.

I guess I'll start with how the week started, not on Thursday, but on Tuesday. I received a frightening call from my best friend, Stephen Ivanoski, who was supposed to be running in Napa. He told me...

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Poker Tourney and Press

This week was pretty much the last big week we can really expect before everything wraps up on July 17th. And a pretty big week it turned out to be. The two main things were the poker tournament which was expected to yield a few thousand but nothing huge, and the increased press which was huge for awareness of Intestinal Fortitude and CCFA.

The increased press is the links below in beautifully written articles by Vicki-Ann Downing of the Brockton Enterprise and Ross Muscato of the Easton Patc...

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Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon Weekend

Team New England

This race weekend was another one of those weekends that was great. Similar to the marathon weekend and the L O C O event, this was another classic event for Intestinal Fortitude. Up until a few weeks ago, I was only supposed to be doing the Napa to Sonoma half-marathon in mid-July, but because we are the number one fundraiser, I was invited to the weekend festivities and race. So, the weekend started on Thursday night. There was a VIP dinner but due to work I was unable to make it. My sister, A...

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New Member to the Team

So things have been pretty slow lately but there is some big news coming in. My best friend since high school, Stephen Ivanoski, will be running in the Napa-Sonoma half marathon on July 17th. He will be starting his own fundraising campaign to help out with Intestinal Fortitude. Among my family, there was intitial hesitance to allow another member, but among the committee it was unanimous to get him on board. I will be giving him advice on fundraising and training him for the big half-...

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New Ideas

Happy Boston Marathon day to everyone and congratulations to all who competed. I plan on running it next year. Especially since I already got some experience in today's marathon, here's an explanation... I'd like to start this blog by giving a shoutout to Duncan Payne who competed today in a time of 3:34 and my mentor Tim Catoggio who finished in 2:43. I've been giving Duncan advice for a couple months based on my experiences and what my mentor Tim told me. I showed up to the race in boo...